The fifteen years after 1998 saw left-wing governments being elected across Latin America. Cuba's isolation was ended. Brazil joined with China, Russia and South Africa to challenge neo-liberal dominance in the WTO. Venezuela set up Bolivarian structures for economic cooperation across the subcontinent. The daily lives of working people were transformed.

Yet today only Venezuela and Bolivia remain. Right-wing and extreme right-wing regimes have been installed across the subcontinent. While resistance continues, it is against the background of police repression, increasing material hardship and the loss of economic and civil rights.

These pamphlets seek to understand how this has happened and why left-wing governments were so quickly replaced.The editorial team includes Paul Dobson and assembles analyses from a variety of perspectives across Latin America.